Kwanza
UnisexGirls' nameBoys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Kwanza has been given to 269 babies in the U.S. since 1971. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1978, with 29 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 84% girls, 16% boys all-time.
Babies named Kwanza, 1999
1 in 738,000
Kwanza over time, 1880–2025
Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
Girls or boys — Kwanza over time
In 1999, Kwanza went to 100% girls and 0% boys.
A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.
How common is Kwanza?
Kwanza had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1999, the last year it was published.
- Among all babies, 1999
- 1 in 738,000
- 5 of 3,692,373 births
- Among girls only
- 1 in 355,000
- <0.01% of girls
- Rank, 1999
- Unranked
- Fewer than 5 uses
- Coin-flip room size
- 511,873 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Kwanza sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 1999 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 511,873 children born in 1999 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Kwanza. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Kwanzas were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Kwanza was born before 1979 — so the typical Kwanza is around 46 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1970s
- 53.3% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 86.8%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 227
- People you could plausibly meet
1970s — 53.3% of all recorded uses (121).
Is Kwanza rising or falling?
Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.
- Rank vs 1 year ago
- —
- Not ranked then
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- New entry
- Not ranked then
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- —
- Not ranked then
- Births vs 10 years ago
- —
- Not published both years
- Share of its own peak
- 0%
- Peak was 1978 (29)
- Years since peak
- 47
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 45.2% average annual change
Spellings of Kwanza
Kwanza is not the most common spelling — Wanda is, with 82.1% against Kwanza's 0.07%.
Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.
Where Kwanza is used
Across 1910–2025, Kwanza was most concentrated in Louisiana — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 290,383 across all states with data.
Most concentrated
- 1Louisiana1 in —
Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Kwanza has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Kwanza by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a girl's name
Names similar to Kwanza
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Kwanza
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.